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This. This. This. The old foaming soap dispenser bottles used to have lines on them "Fill with soap here" and "fill with water to here" until they realized that they could sell watered down soap and make a killing.

It's either the threads on the bottle or it's the assembly that connects the bottle to the sink. That's usually some kind of screw/nut system. You might need to tighten or seal that up with silicone if it still leaks. One of those will work

Yeah, but you can't tell when it's full and the pump takes up a lot of volume when you put it back. So, even if you don't overfill while squirting new dish soap in from the top, when you put the pump back in it still overflows and makes a soap mess (a pretty conveniently located mess though). I love this DIY improvement!

Thanks! Forgot to mention...I tried using a cork instead of the rubber stopper, but didn't have a cork borer. In other words, my drill shredded the cork. Rubber stopper was plan B. The stopper is not even really needed, but keeps it from spilling if it tipped over.

Instead of drilling a hole in the stopper, you could visit your local homebrew supply shop (or buy online) one of these drilled stoppers we at r/homebrewing use all the time. You could probably get the right size tubing there as well.

I agree. The picture clearly is Ajax Dish Detergent, however, I think they're doing it wrong also. It should be Softsoap or some other kind of hand soap (although most dish detergent double as handsoap, i.e. Palmolive). The bottom line is that the dispenser should not be used for doing dishes. Its designed for dispensing soap to wash hands.

I think this may belong in /r/LifeProTips as well. Very ingenious. I feel like a moron from not realizing that freezing rubber seems to be a really good idea in being able to drill a hole through it rather than making rubber chunks that can be used on the track at school.

I would think a vacuum would form in the soap bottle, since you've kind of got a closed system. Does this happen, and if so, does it cause problems? (Obviously if it did the simple solution would be to punch a small vent hole somewhere in the top of the soap bottle)

I'm pretty sure that the normal setup, the air gets sucked back in around the pump mechanism, not through it. If the air went through the pump it would end up at the top of the "straw", so your next pump would just give you air. If you ever clean out one of these dispenser pumps and then try using it again, the first 5 or 6 pumps will just be air.

In this setup I think air has to get back in either around the tube or around the stopper. It's possible that even with a very tiny return path this would be ok, since the pottle is pretty big (and flexible) so the negative pressure of a few pumps will be pretty small, and it can equalize over the next few hours or whatever until the pump is used again.

You can buy the soap dispenser and a proper-sized and type drill bit for your sink and it will take you all of 5 minutes to install. You'd have to leave the dispenser there when you leave (because if you remove it there will be a hole in the sink) and you might get hassled for the modification but only if anyone actually notices.

The dispenser is cheap enough that you probably don't mind just leaving it behind for the next tenant and I'd wager your deposit money that nobody will even notice the dispenser during their exit inspection and if they do they'll probably assume that the apartment management had it installed. If you just claim that it came that way when you moved in they'd be pretty hard-pressed to prove you did it yourself.

This way requires no pouring. If it takes 30 seconds to pour and the mod took 30 minutes (generous!) and you have to refill it 10 times a year, that mod would pay for itself in only 6 years. Hmmm seems not worth it, because it's the kind of chore you do to keep busy when you are waiting for something else like water to boil.

well no, its the type of chore that gets done when your in the middle of making something and your hands are dirty and you need to wash your hands but the damn kids forgot to change the soap, so now you change the soap, ruin your dish and start over, Mod pays for itself in two weeks.

You can get rubber stoppers with holes in them already, even two holes in them if you want (for a vacuum-preventing vent, perhaps). (google it)... you might have to buy in bulk from a scientific supply house though.

I did something similar but my reasoning was that my concrete counters were too thick for the soap container. I can't seem to get a good flow of soap though, I'll have to mess with it a bit. I probably have a leak in the hose up top.

I am missing something....bought what i needed, and after i finally pump soap to the top of the pumps, it slowly all drains back into the bottle....what am i missing??? I will definatly not stand there and pump air for an hour for a squirt of soap...

I don't mean to burst your bubble, but you're hardly the first person to do it. Someone else has already created this product and even put a valve in it to prevent having to prime the pump every time you want soap (I still don't understand why you don't have to do this considering that gravity is always at work...). Here's a link to that guy (who has a patent pending on it...) http://custominserts-store.stores.yahoo.net/nevsoapandlo.html

I've personally tried to do this before, but I could never find the tubing! I might have to search some more for it or end up ordering it online...but at that point, I'm just tempted to buy the whole contraption from the Yahoo link!

I was wondering if it had already been done. Thanks for searching. With the big response here I was thinking I should do exactly what the Never-MT fellow has done. I guess if there's a patent pending, I'm too late!

clever but... the std bottle screws onto the dispenser pump, thus taking no floor space in the undersink cabinet. It doesn't get knocked over, spilled, tangled with other objects (spray nozzle hose, for one). I think you've unsolved a problem. Posting here as DIYBuzzKill...
edit: I would pay not to have this in my house.

Sorry, but you miss my point. I think the soap dispenser with the standard bottle is far superior to thisOP's "improvement". Next I expect to see a bottle lying on its side atop 2 bricks touted as the next step in the evolution of kitchen soap. Or one made of Lego.

When you're dealing with built-in dispensers, you're usually dealing with relatively high value homes. The counter tops are usually granite, and holes for the items are drilled directly into the granite and not in the sink.

This guy used to have multiple holes for a different faucet system and he plugged them up with chrome blanks, but there's no reason he couldn't use the extra holes for soap dispensers (he might have issues putting the bottles that float under the dispensers there with the sink blocking access, but if he used tubes like in this post, he could do it).http://www.younghouselove.com/2010/11/beware-of-sink-holes/